On TV News, Reactions to Obama Announcement

As we noted earlier, President Obama has come out in support of same-sex marriage in an interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts. Following the announcement, the broadcast and cable news channels started to analyze what it meant.

Probably the most surprising reaction was from Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith, who said “The President of the United States, now in the 21st century,” eventually adding this surprising remark (Via BuzzFeed):

While Smith served as a voice in support of the President’s decision, The Fox Nation website (which is an opinion site that relies heavily on user submissions), took a decidedly different approach to the story. Update: The headline has been changed, the original headline was “OBAMA FLIP FLOPS, DECLARES WAR ON MARRIAGE.”

About 10 minutes after ABC’s news-making special report at 2:58pmET, NBC’s Brian Williams anchored a special report across the NBC network. Williams described Roberts’ sit-down as “a hastily-organized interview with ABC News,” before bringing in Chuck Todd to analyze the politics behind it:

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